Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1887-10-22
CONVINCING TESTIMONY.

Light is the worst enemy Of evil doors.
The best lighted city is the most effectuallv
protected" Such are the brief s%ententious
words in which the Montreal Chief of Police
expressed himself when asked his opinion al
the value OF electric lights in u city. And
the united testimony Of every other Chic
OF Police in the civili1ed world will b nr
him mi in the assertion. 1t is such a seif,
evident proposition that it's mere state
ment is sufficient for it to PASS unchaller gee.
Burglaries, robberies, violent crimes OF ali
sorts generally occur after the shades Of
night have cast the mantle OF obscurity
over everything and facilitate escape after
the commission of the crime.
The Brush Electric Company last spring
issued q circular to nearly all the police
CAPTAINS in the United States requiring
them to forward their unbiased opinion as
to the aid in preserving order in the cities
under their charge afforded by the greater
or less use OF electricity. answers have
been received from all the large cities of
the country-New York. Boston,
Detroit, New Orleans, Washington,
Minneapolis. Sacramento-nearly every.
where that electricity comes into use as an
illuminating power at night, and the uni
versal answer couched in more or less di-
rect language is that the use OF the electric
light in the streets lessons crime, especially
burglary. robbery and assault.
The City Marshal Of Lawrence, Mass, a
large manufacturing town, says he regards
each OF the large lights az being equalt to the
service OF q policeman" at the place where
situated.
The Chief of Police OF Syracuse, N. Y,
says that one electric light will cleanse a
neighborhood where thieves and loafers
o ,ngregate quicker and more effectualiy
than a squad Of policemen"
The Common Council OF the City o!
P~oughkeepsie. N. Y, thought so highly OF
the superiority Of electricity over gas as a
street illuminant that last spring they
awarded the contract for lighting their city
to the electric company for q much larger
price tran was bid for gas.
The experience afforded by several years f
trial of electric street lighting in Boston is
that it has been an incalculab BILE aid to the
police. Superintendent II Police Small Of
that city writes: "What used to be a
great nuisance in the city in former years
has nearly entirely disappeared since the
introduction Of electric lights, particularly
in previously poorly lighted places. 1t ex-
listed inthe form Of disorderly persons group |
ing together in dark places and insulting, at !
times assaultine respectable, law-abiding
persons who were obliged to pass them"
The benefits afforded to Jersey City b. |
the substitution OF electricity for street
lighting is thus testified to by the Chiei OF
Police: I'm this city we had electric lights
placed in our tough n%eighborhood ana |
and the result was that in those places !
crime decreased 80 per cent. in a short
time" |
These are samples OF the benefits
already experienced by the men who have
most to do with the criminal classes in the |
cities from the introduction CT the electric
light there. Our own police could add |
similar testimony from their own -xperi-
n C here. In the fsce OF such evidence az |
this. can the citizens OF Butte afford to re-
turn to ths dim semi. obscurity OF gas?